The Matrix - Splice's Story
by navydave32
Summary: Between the events of The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded, the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar rescues more candidates from the Matrix. This is the story of a young man, Cody, who knew something was wrong. He asked the dangerous questions. He wondered the dangerous wonders. He found the dangerous people, and finally, he found them. Morpheus. Trinity. Neo.
1. Chapter 1

Splice's Story

**A**s a yellow school bus drove away, the front door to a house was slammed, and standard greetings were given from son to mother as he ran to his room. The son sprinted upstairs and slammed his bedroom door shut, threw his books down on his bed, and went straight to the chair in front of his desk. He spun it around and plopped down in front of his computer. Just before he set his fingers down on the key board, a message popped up.

**Hello, Splice****.** A boy named Cody sat stunned. Cody's on-line name, his code name, was Spice. At fourteen years old, he was a semi-accomplished hacker and computer repairman. The people he was talking to were very interesting. They knew things; for instance, exactly when he returned to his bedroom and readied himself to type. Their knowing exactly when he got where was really spooky. It got him every time. He stabbed the keys in response.

**Hey. Back from school.** He typed and waited for a response, one which spelled out on his screen key stroke by key stroke.

**Yes, I know. Have you made your decision, Splice?**

**Yes. I want to come with you.** **I want to know**, he stabbed in response. There was a moment pause.

**You must realize that if you come with us, there will be no turning back. The life you live today will be part of your past, unable to return to it ever. **

Cody stared at the blinking underscore. He would have to leave his parents. He would no longer go to school. He would be a renegade starting a new life. Did he really want to do that? He placed his fingers on the keyboard and typed.

**Yes, I understand. I have nothing here. I can't even concentrate anymore. I can't do my homework, I can't even blade home without thinking about it. I feel like I have completely lost my mom. **He waited for the response.

**Yes. It does boil down to the question, the question that drives us. You know what that question is, don't you. **Cody frowned and pondered for the countless time.

**What is the Matrix?**

**Indeed. You know that the men you talked to on the playground can't answer, correct? **Cody was momentarily surprised. He had not told them he was visited by federal agents of some kind or another dressed in yellow-lined black suits. On second thought, the surprise drained away. If they knew exactly when he got back into his room, then they probably had eyes elsewhere—but back to the question.

**No, they can't. They do say that all of you are terrorists and that I can't trust you.**He paused before hitting the carriage return and typed another line. **How can I?**There was another pause.

**How can you, indeed. It is definitely up to you. You have met Neo and spoken to him. You have also met them. We offer you answers and the truth. They offer you a life of bondage. You have your reasons to leave. If you had not found me, you would have found someone else. Trust is certainly up to you. **Cody paused. He was right. Cody had found them of his own will. The feds had found him and threatened him with criminal prosecution. Who to trust was not a real hard question.

**I trust you. I want out of this life. I understand everything. I am ready to get away. Can you help me?**

**Yes. You have already begun the process. You can meet us at the left hand side of the land side of the Golden Gate Bridge. You will need to look for a white 1959 Cadillac at 021632 your watch. **

Cody read and waited before typing again.

**You know that I am a black belt in three martial arts and highly trained in disarming combat, correct? A physical confrontation with me will not be to your advantage.** Cody sent as a warning, just in case this was a metafile of some sort. Another moment went by.

**Yes, you reached black belt status in record time, you have trained with the world's best special forces in armed and unarmed combat. You are extremely proficient with bladed and blunt weapons, and you have outstanding records in marksmanship and knife throwing. Last year, you were confronted by seven gang members at once, three of them armed with firearms, two with edged weapons, and two with a baseball bat and a galvanized pipe. You disarmed and subdued them all in twelve seconds, inflicting serious but not permanent wounds on them.**

_Whoa_, Cody thought.

**We know you have the upper hand. **

Again, how the did they know all of this? Another message scrolled across the screen. **Will you be there? **

Cody typed.

**Yes. I will meet you there. Morpheus?**

**Yes.**

**Will you, Neo, and Trinity be there?**

**Yes. **The screen scrolled. Cody blinked and hesitated. As he lifted his fingers to the keyboard, another message scrolled across.

**What is your question, Splice?**

Cody reached his fingers back across the board.

**Will you really get me out?**

**Yes. But you must remember all we offer is the truth and a life of hard work. Nothing more, nothing less. **

**Yes, **he wrote, **I understand. I will be there, on the dot.**

**One more thing. **Morpheus wrote,**Keep the cell phone on you. We will call you if there is a problem. Oh, Cody, don't let your chicken salad get warm.**

"Cody!" his mother called, "dinner's ready!" Cody stabbed the keys.

**Okay.** He cleared the screen back to his desk top of special forces river patrol boats running the rivers of South America and ran down stairs.

Sharon Tailor held the phone close to her ear as if trying to keep her son from hearing the conversation.

"Well, Agent Brown, thank you for your concern. I will have a talk with my son."

"Mrs. Tailor, we are only concerned with your son's safety," the modeled and holier than thou voice said over the line.

"Again, thank you for your concern, but I believe that my son can take care of himself. Good night, sir." She hung up the phone as her son romped down the stairs.

"Hey, Mom."

They both sat down at the table. Cody smiled when he saw there was a heap of chicken salad on his plate.

Cody was not a tall guy, but at about five foot seven. He had two piercings, on in his left ear and one in his right brow. He had trained in the martial arts and gymnastics for the last ten of his fifteen year life. That had earned him the desire of the girls, and he liked it. He use to wear a trench coat to school until trench coats started to be associated with kids ready to kill other kids in class, so he quickly shed it. Over the last year, he had learned how to hack computers, and he used that to try to find an answer to his question. For some reason, he wanted to know what the "Matrix" was. He had messed with matrices in math class, but there was another matrix out there, one he felt when he was asleep. It was weird, but that would all be over soon, the hoped.

"You want some green beans, Cody?" his mom asked.

"Thanks," he said taking them.

"What's wrong, Cody? What's going on at school?" she asked.

"What do you mean?

"You haven't been the same lately. What's wrong?"

"Noting you need to know about, Mom," he said quickly.

"I am you mother, Cody. I need to know if something is wrong with my son."

"Mom, I am a teenager. Why can't you respect that?" he asked. She pushed a green bean around on her plate.

"Federal agents have been calling about you. They say you're talking to a terrorist name 'Morheus'." she said. "Are you in some sort of trouble?" she asked. Cody paused. This was weird. _No one_ knew he was talking to Morpheus. He was using encrypted software and bounced the signal off of a friend's computer who was bouncing his signal off Dell computer's main office line in Austin, Texas. He was using a dial-up modem that changed gateways and IP addresses every time he got on. No one could possibly track him, and as a result, no one could possibly know that he was talking to Morpheus. How was all of this happening? "Cody?" his mom asked at his blank pause. He shifted his eyes to her.

"No, mom, not that I know of."

As he laid on his made bed, he knew there was no way he could sleep. He knew it would take him twenty minutes to get to the bridge from his house on foot at a walking pace. Ten if he ran. He had two hours now. He got up and quietly got his leather trench coat out of his closet ane laid it out on his bed. He opened his desk drawer and slid the cell phone into the inner coat pocket, careful not to lose it. He got a pair of black fatigue SWAT-type pants, a black shirt, his belt, and his black jungle boots. After he buttoned up his shirt, he got the tactical vest a good martial arts friend of his handed down to him. It was a vest that held a wusashi to his back securely. The wusashi was a defensive form of the katana blade. Its blade was smaller, only twenty-four inches, small enough to conceal on your back. He looked at it before he put it on. He was going to take no chances. If someone was going to try to kidnap or kill him, he was going to take a lot of them with him. He strapped it on and slid the two foot blade into the scabbard attached upside down to his back. All he would have to do is grab the hilt from the small of his back and pop a restraining strap to be in business.

He picked up the trench coat and slid it on. He looked in the mirror. There he stood, as he was on the inside. That was how he pictured himself. Even with the coat on, one could still tell his powerful, yet not muscle-head, build. His short, black hair stood jelled up, spiked on end, his black horse shoe earring hung off his ear, a black stud in his brow, and clad to the hilt in black with a katana blade strapped to his back. He had never stood as his personality was on the inside before. He felt confident. He felt powerful. He felt ready to rock the world.

He slid on his dexterity gloves with the index fingers and thumbs cut out and unlocked his window. He slowly pulled it open and slipped through, stepping out onto the shingled roof. He quietly closed the widow and made no noise as he stepped to the edge of the first story's roof. He looked down to the ground, some ten feet down, and made a jump. He came down on his right foot and rolled in a somersault over his back and back onto his feet. Having spent his life as a gymnast, he had learned how to take a leap without any risk of injury. He ran across the yard and across the street to the shadows, away from the street lights. He checked his watch. He ran at an easy pace. While the boots made it a hell of a lot harder to run, he sucked it up and went with it. The cold night air bit at his face as he sweat under the trench coat.

Finally, he arrived at the area and silently caught his breath. He was now five minutes early. The bridge was absolutely huge. It never ceased to amazehim how big it really was. He looked around the old, abandoned industrial district for the car he was to wait for. He used some of his sneak-and-peek training he got with naval special forces and moved to a very secluded and stealthy spot. He made careful sure there were no winos or sleeping gang-bangers around. If they tried to give him trouble, things might get a little messy.

He looked at his watch, it was two sixteen in the morning. He was there. Where were they? As it neared two-sixteen and thirty seconds, the area was slowly illuminated by the headlights of a car. A white 1959 Cadillac Fleetwood pulled up and stopped. The head and tail lights turned out, and three people stepped out of the vehicle. He recognized Neo, immediately. It looked like a chick in a glossy outfit was driving. That must have been Trinity. A big, tall, black man lifted a phone to his ear and mumbled something. Cody smiled. That seemed to be his cue.

Morpheus clicked the phone closed and looked through his sunglasses at the darkened area.

"What do you see, Neo?"

"He's here. Three homeless people in the abandoned buildings. The code looks normal," Neo said with a quick survey of the area.

"Where is he?" Trinity asked as she rounded the front of the huge powerhouse of a car.

Neo looked up at the second story of an abandoned building to their ten o'clock position. He could see the code that made up the buildings. He saw the streams of it running down the walls of the structures and over every change in the surfaces. Like this, it was easy to see any inconsistencies, like the contours of a human body. He nodded his head.

"There. Building to the left, second story. He came armed." Neo watched the shape change as their contact stood, the code streaming over the contours of his body and clothing.

The other two saw a slight shift in darkness as the teenager jumped to ground level from the second story. They were all duly impressed with his stealth. He silently walked into view, only shards of light illuminating him at a time. Morpheus smiled.

"I wear my sunglasses at night," he sang as he approached. "Neo," Cody said with a nod of his head. As he closed on Morpheus, he extended his hand. "Morpheus. Good to meet you in the flesh." Morpheus let his right arm out from behind the small of his back and shook the young man's hand.

"At last, Splice. Very prompt. I like the outfit."

The kid smiled a little more and released Morpheus's hand and looked to Trinity and extended his hand, and she took his.

"Trinity? It is a pleasure and honor to meet you. I've read about you. I always knew only a lady had the balls to crack the IRS main frame," he said before he kissed her ring finger. She could not help but smile a little. He spasmed and fell to a knee with cough, squeezing her hand as if holding on for dear life.

"What the fuck?!" he grumbled as his face began to stream with neon green code.

"Agents," Neo said. Trinity snapped a hand gun off her thy and crammed it against Cody's forehead, rotating his head back.

Cody felt the cold barrel press into his forehead, but that was the last thing on his mind. It felt as if someone stuck a blender in his stomach and was swirling his guts around. As he strained against the feeling, the veins in his neck filled out and his thyroid cartilage sliced up and down in his neck as he gasped for air. He tried to figure out what to do. The feeling suddenly changed. It now felt like he was being shoved out of existence, like he were being replaced by someone else. Whatever it was, it felt like it was trying to kill him, and that royally _pissed_ him _off! _ He flexed his mind and fought!

Cody's frame distorted as the Agent began to take his place. His trench coat shortened, and the smooth leather finish began to flatten over into the well-fitted suit of an Agent. Trinity began pulling the trigger, and the hammer cocked back.

"Wait!" Neo said with an outstretched hand. "He's doing something."

"What?!" Trinity asked quickly. The transformation stopped, and the agent couldn't fully take form. Sections of him kept morphing back and forth from Cody to the agent. Cody's jaw muscle flared as he bent his head down, breaking the contact with Trinity's pistol barrel.

"Get the fuck out of _me!_" he said as his form began to retake shape. His coat unfurled over him and onto the ground as the green code rippled right off his back. He released Trinity's hand and fell back on his butt dazed and confused. "What the fuck was that?!" He looked to Morpheus, who looked equally confused. "That was an agent, wasn't it?"

Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo all looked took a half step back. That was a new one on them.

"There are more of them," Splice said as he wiped his jaw and coughed. "I saw them as it tried to take me."

"How many more?" Morpheus asked as he pulled a Beretta93NR automatic pistol out of his coat and clicked off the safety. Cody turned around to face the buildings.

"Three." Cody reached underneath his coat and grabbed the hilt of his katana and snapped off the restraining clip. Morpheus clicked the key guard down away from the cell phone's keys and hit redial. Cody could hear a voice on the other end say _operator_.

"Tank, we need an exit."

Cody looked out into the darkness and saw three suits walk out of the shadows, all about fifteen feet from them.

"It's him," the one on the right said.

"It's the anomaly," from the one on the left.

"Shall we still proceed?" the right said.

"Yes," from the left.

"He is still only human," said the center.

As soon as Cody saw them, he knew that they were the ones who were trying to get him or whatever they tried to do to him. He was not a happy camper. It was strange, Cody thought to himself, that all of these people were wearing sunglasses at night. And what was this stuff about _only_ human?

Regardless, he had a score to settle with these cockbreaths. Cody broke into a full sprint, and by his third step, he was already at track-meet speed. He jumped and somersaulted in the air once as he closed the gap between him and the guys in suits. Cody flew toward the leftmost one, and straightened his legs as he came to the man, slamming his heavy jungle boots into the agent's chest. Cody bounded back off the agent and landed on his feet facing the center agent. The center agent snarled and drew what looked like a black Desert Eagle .50 caliber hand gun and brought it around to face Cody.

Instinctively, Cody closed the small gap between them and slapped the gun away to his left just before it discharged, nearly blasting out his left eardrum, but he did not notice. He continued his turn and drew his katana with his right hand. He pulled it out and raked the agent deep across the chest, turned once more and threw his boot into the bleeding man's gut. As the man impacted the ground, Cody noticed Neo had engaged the last of the agents and seemed to be fighting him with only one hand. As the cut agent came to a stop on the ground, he flared a bright green, and lightning arched across his body as he turned into an old homeless man.

"What the hell?" Cody mumbled to himself. He saw out of his left eye the agent he kicked down was recovering and readying himself for another fight. Cody picked up the Desert Eagle lying on the ground and brought it around to the agent and fired. The agent's torso seemed to phase into three or five different directions as Cody fired a round at his center of mass. Again, he was flabbergasted. Who were these people? What had be gotten himself into?!

"Let's go, now!" Morpheus said as he yanked Cody by the collar to the car. Cody ran toward the classic car and heard the cracking of uzi fire as Trinity laid suppression fire from the other side of the car. Morpheus threw the door open and leaned the seat forward. Cody jumped in the back seat, Morpheus threw the seat back, stepped in, and slamming the door. "Go." Morpheus fired a stream of bullets through the window at the agent Cody fired at. The agent again dodged the bullets in a shimmering haze.

"What the hell's going on?" Cody asked. He was thrown back in his seat as the four-hundred and twenty horses accelerated them at a phenomenal rate. "Whoa, wait, wait! What about Neo?!"

"Neo can handle himself. He will meet us back at the safe house." Morpheus turned around and looked at Cody through his mirror lense sunglasses. "You have to keep your trust in me."

Cody threw his hands up and slammed them back down into the white leather seats.

"Well, what the hell kind of choice do I have, huh?" He held his blood smeared blade out. "I just sliced and diced a homeless man who looked and packed like a federal agent! A well armed federal agent, and that other one can _dodge bullets_ like a _gotdamn_ computer game!"

"Yes, you did very well back there," Morpheus said.

"Yeah, well, what about Neo?" he asked as he turned around and looked to the fight and saw nothing. "What? Did they get Neo?"

"No," Morpheus rumbled, "look out your right window."

Cody looked out the window and saw nothing. Then he looked up and saw Neo flying five feet above the side of the car, long coat flapping like a dark flag in the wind as they raced along the Golden Gate Bridge at a hundred miles per hour.

"Oh, God, who are you people?" he asked as he sat back in his seat, "what the fuck is going on?"

As they stepped out of the Cadillac, Cody slid the blade back into its scabbard and straightened his coat. Cody looked Neo over from head to toe and stabbed him with his finger.

"Just making sure you're real, Superman," Cody said. Neo looked at Trinity and smiled.

"It is time, Splice," Morpheus said, folding his forearms together parallel behind his back. "Follow me." Cody followed Morpheus with Neo and Trinity taking the rear. As they climbed the stairs, no one made a noise until Morpheus spoke again.

"I bet you feel a lot like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole."

"Yeah, a rabbit hole where one side wears trench coats and the other steals people's bodies—and everyone wears sunglasses at night."

Morpheus smiled as they climbed the stairs.

"You said, Splice, that you wanted to know. You wanted to know the answers to all your questions. Like I said, all we can offer you is the truth. Tonight, you have already had a taste of that truth." Morpheus looked back over his shoulder as they hit the next landing. "Are you sure you want to see how deep the rabbit hole really goes?"

Cody shook his head.

"Well, I must say, there is no turning back now. I think my fate is taking a wild turn tonight. Looks like I am going to start the a new life with you guys."

"You have no idea," Trinity said.

"I genuinely believe you are ready, Splice. You said fate. Do you believe in fate?" Morpheus asked.

"To a degree, yes. I believe that we are hear for a reason. If we know our purpose or not, we all have one. All we have to do is find it and understand what we must do." As Cody finished, they arrived to the correct floor. Morpheus walked through a door and into what looked to use to be a dining room with a fire place in the wall. It was completely empty with the exception of a pair of old worn, red, wing-backed chairs facing each other in the middle room. Trinity closed and locked the door while Neo took up position by it. Morpheus continued his course toward the chairs and unfolded his right arm, pointing to the chair.

"Please, have a seat."

Splice did. Because the hilt of his katana was so long it hung down past his rear, he drew it out and laid it against the chair. He folded his coat beneath him and sat. Morpheus stood with his arm propped up on the back of the other chair, facing away from Cody.

"This is where I ask if you ever get the feeling that you're not awake, that you're still dreaming and you're just waiting to wake up." He turned to Cody. "And you say."

Cody squirmed in his chair.

"Yeah, like right now."

"Tonight was a little like that, was it not?" Morpheus had a seat. "The reason we are here is because of a question, a question that brought you to me. You had a glimpse of that reality." Morpheus said. Cody watched himself swallow in the large, black man's glasses.

"What is the Matrix?"

"The Matrix is all around us, Splice. It is everywhere, all the time. It is your world, and it is chair you sit in. The Matrix is a system designed to keep you under control. Those agents you saw at school and those you saw tonight, they are part of that system. They are the enforcers to make sure you don't find out what that system really is, and they would have killed you tonight. Truthfully, Splice, I have never seen anyone do what you did tonight. Once they begin to take someone, they take their body. I have never seen anyone force them away as you did. You are very special." He took a breath and held out his fists.

"Thank you," Splice said. It was all he could say. He didn't know what else to do.

"_This_ is the fork in the road," Morpheus said, "this is your last chance." He opened his left fist, palm up revealing a blue pill. "You take the blue pill, and you wake up in your bed with your life as you knew it." He opened the right, "You take the red, you see how deep the rabbit hole really goes. Remember, there is no turning back. All I offer is the truth."

Cody looked at the two pills and pondered the rest of his existence. He thought of the two ways it could go.

"Is it a fight I will be joining?"

"Yes," Morpheus said.

"Is it the good fight?"

"Yes. It is a war against tyranny and oppression. It is a cause _I_ am willing to die for," he said with a motion to Trinity and Neo, "that we are willing to die for."

Cody looked at them all trusted Morpheus. He did not know why, but as he was taught for all of those years in martial arts, he knew that it was time to go with his instincts. He took the red pill and threw it in his mouth. He took the glass of water and sucked it down as Morpheus looked on. Morpheus closed his hands and Cody set the glass back down.

"Let's rock."

Morpheus smiled largely and signaled Cody to rise as he did.

"Time is always against us, especially now. What you took is part of a tracing program. It will better help us find you. Come with me." They both walked through the door and into a room full of computer equipment. Neo followed them in and closed the door behind them. Cody looked over his shoulder at Neo.

"You did this?"

"Yes. It's a little funky, but it's your ticket out of here."

After Neo closed the door behind them, Morpheus signaled for Cody to sit in a chair next to a broken mirror.

"If you would, please take off your coat," Morpheus said. Cody slid his coat off and placed it in Morpheus's outstretched hand. His sleeves were rolled up with the bottoms just over the middle of his gynmast's arms. "Have a seat," Morpheus said, and Cody did. As he sat, Trinity walked over to him. She picked up a bottle of alcohol and a cotton swab.

"We need to monitor your vitals," she said as she rubbed spots just below his left bicep on the inside of his elbow and on either side of the bulge in his upper throat. She stuck padded wires on the cleaned spots and returned to her chair. He looked at down and looked around at all of the equipment. It was all very fascinating. Trinity sat at a keyboard pressing screens.

"So what specifically does the pill do to me?"

"It disrupts your input/output carrier signal so we can pinpoint your exact position," Morpheus said. Cody frowned and nodded his head.

"Alright. Sounds good. You don't have to do much looking, you know, I'm sitting right here."

Morpheus smiled.

"Indeed you are. You will see in a few minutes."

Cody looked around, back to the broken mirror. He looked at how the light reflected off the individual shards when he noticed the breaks meld back into a uniform piece. He lifted his eyebrows.

"Now, that's cool," he said to Morpheus as he pointed to the mirror. He leaned close to it and examined the mirror.

"Have you ever had a dream, Splice, that felt completely real? What would happen if you never woke up? How would you know if you were still in the dream world or the real world?"

Cody continued to examine the fixed surface of the mirror.

"Yeah. I have one of those feelings right now. I really don't know what's going on," Cody said, looking at the image of Morpheus in the mirror.

"Please, touch the mirror."

"You sure? It doesn't look very safe," Cody said. "I mean, what kind of moron would touch a mirror that just healed itself?" Trinity cracked a laugh under her breath, and Neo whispered _shutup_ at her. Cody looked over that them with a surprised look on his face. "Did he?" he asked.

"You have to trust me," Morpheus said undistracted. "The mirror." Cody flicked his eyebrows and slowly stuck his left index finger into the mirror. The surface parted around his finger and stuck to it. As he pulled it away, it stretched.

"Oh, gross," he said as the mirror snapped away from his fingers, leaving a silver blob on his fingertips. "Now, you see," he said, holding his fingers up, pointing at them with his right index finger, "this is why I don't just stick my fingers all up and over everything."

"It's going into replication," Trinity said, staring into the flat screens. Cody looked at the silver blob as it took the shape of his fingers and began to travel down toward the palm of his hand.

"Is it supposed to be doing this?"

Morpheus pulled out his phone and clicked the spring-loaded key guard down and got his operator on the line.

"I need a signal, tank."

Cody watched the mercury-like material flow over his palm and begin to follow the contours of the muscles in his forearm.

"Alrighty, then." He looked to Neo and Trinity. "This is good, right? I need some reassurance over here."

"Yes, just chill out, Splice," Trinity said. "Everything is fine."

"Just grin and bear it, huh?" he said as the shocking cold got to him. He gritted his teeth and flexed his arm. As veins rose up off his arm in response, more contours were added to the chrome finish enveloping his arm. "Oh, _God_ it's cold!" It flowed over his bicep and under his sleeve."

"Tank, we are going to need a signal soon," Morpheus said.

"We've got fluctuating vitals across the board," Trinity said. "We're narrowing his position."

Cody gritted his teeth as he felt it spread from his arm down onto his lat that spanned down his side and back. He was beyond words at this point. It felt like someone was slowly dipping him in unconscionably frigid water. He felt it spread up his shoulder, across his trap and up his neck.

"We've got it!" Trinity said.

"Now, Tank!"

Cody seemed to fell himself digitize in every sense of the term. He felt as if he were broken down into pixels and streamed away somewhere. The world fell away, and he was okay with it.

Cody opened his eyes to a very grotesque sight. He was under water. Under...something pink. A mess of tubes radiated from his body. He looked down and could see his body suspended in the pink fluid, like a swimming pool. It felt as if he had a straw down his throat. He tried to cough but could not. He reached with all his might and grabbed a tube coming out of his mouth and yanked it out. He felt as if he were drowning. He kicked but felt weak, as if he had been in a bed for weeks.

He reached up and felt a membrane above him, and there were sides around him. With his weakened arm, he pushed up and broke through membrane holding him in and grabbed the sides of his holder...his tank. He blinked and looked out to see the fields, the crops of humans packaged up in their own pink blobs, just like him. He felt a drill screw attachment spun around in the back of his head, forcing him to unintentionally cross his eyes. He could not make a noise, nor could he do much more than move. The pink goo he was in immediately drained him away like the water in a water park, sweeping out of his pink egg and flushing him down a tube. After bouncing off the walls, he free fell through the air and hit the water hard. He instinctively rolled himself over when he saw bubbles rolling over his eyes. He was so weak. It took everything he had, but he made it back to the surface and took a breath of air. He was utterly exhausted. Even though he was totally weakened, dazed, and confused, he fell back on his survival training. He floated on his back as his eyes rolled back into his head and fell unconscious. He heard what sounded like a spaceship around him, but he could not even open his eyes.

He later came back around, nearly blinded by the lights overhead. A female silhouette came into view. He smiled.

"Oh, look," Cody groggled, "an angel. Rock on."

"He's coming along," she said. "How long do you want to repair his muscles?"

"Long enough to bring him back the way he was in the Matrix. We don't want him to have to start over after all that work."

His eyes focused, and he saw them. Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo. They were all there, but looked different.

"Morpheus. Trinity. Am I in Heaven?"

"No, Splice," he heard Morpheus say in the same deep, authoritative voice. "Welcome to the real world."

**\- End -**


	2. Splice Goes Back to the Matrix

**S**plice sat at the metal table and watched Tank pour another meal from the valve. The slop of the food was one of few noises in the ship. The ship creaked and groaned as any seafairing…flying…whatever this ship was doing…ship did. Tank turned around and saw Splice looking forward to the meal. His hair was growing back, about a half inch long at this point. If it were a light green, his head would look like a tennis ball.

"Tank, can I ask a question?" Splice asked.

"Sure, kid, what's on your mind?"

Splice took the bowl of what looked like a mix between oatmeal and runny eggs.

"Why are there so few people onboard?"

Tank flicked his eyebrows as he took a seat across from Splice.

"Wow, you ask the tough questions." Tank drew a breath and stirred his meal. "Has Morpheus told you about the qualifications for being set free from the Matrix?" Tank asked. Splice sucked down a spoon full of the goop.

"Nope."

"Well, one of the deciding factors is age. You can't be too old. Typically the cut off is around eighteen, because after living in it so long, people have the tendency to not be able to let go. Well, we had one of those aboard, and he went bad. He led a bunch of agents to the group and let them get Morpheus. When he got out, he got me pretty good with the squiddy gun," Tank said as he pointed to his side wrapped in ACE bandage. "He hit me twice and got my brother Dozer. After he got done with me and Dozer, he went around, methodically pulling people while he talked to Trinity over the phone." He paused as he waded through the memories. I was just able to get him before he could unplug Trinity, Morpheus, or Neo." He paused as he painfully remembered the whole thing. "To be true, Morpheus is having a harder time than the rest of us letting go. A little leader's survivor's guilt there."

"Holy shit, man, I didn't mean to get into that. I'm really sorry," Splice said. Tank frowned and got another spoon full of mush.

"Naaa, don't worry about it, kid. It's good you know. Tell you the truth, I'm not even sure if I'm going to make it in the long run or not. Those EM guns of ours are real hosers. They throw out high-energy electrons. We don't really know what it does to human tissue." He took his bite and looked at the spoon. "I guess I'll see in time."

"When did it happen?" Splice asked with caution.

"About three months ago. I fried the mother fucker, though. See, the guy's name was Cipher, and he made the mistake of dropping the squiddy killer right next to me after he left me for dead. I sent him burning to Hell." After an awkward pause, Tank broke from the thought and changed subjects. "Now, you, Splice, you were interesting to watch in the Matrix."

Splice smiled.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Tank added. "The way you handled yourself against the agents was really cool. I have never seen anyone force an agent out before. You've really got a gift."

"Thanks. I guess I was born for this stuff."

"You've got the moves, too. Normally, we have to program all of that stuff in people when they get out, but you knew a lot to begin with. You brought a little more out than we expected. You'd be a good addition to the crew when you're old enough, but you know, hopefully the war will be over by then." Tank took another bite. "Neo being the One, he really kicks some serious ass."

"Yeah. When I saw him flying outside the car window, I was a little more than scared." Splice took another spoon full. "You know, it's really nice," he said as he flexed his bicep, the tennis ball sized muscle. "It's nice I don't have to spend another year and a half working out to get back to what I did in the Matrix, but my theory of use it or lose it is just as true here as there."

"Yeah." Tank tapped his temple. "Sound theory. One thing you've got going for you is your work ethic. A bit of advice from an operator: if you bust your ass, you will go far."

"Thanks. It's kind of weird, though. When I spend six hours in the training simulations, I come out exhausted, and my muscles feel fatigued."

Tank smiled.

"You should see yourself. It looks like you're wrestling the chair. Something else I've noticed is that you've been able to accept the fact that the Matrix is just a computer reality a lot better than other people."

"You think it's just because I have a young mind open to possibilities?" Splice asked, taking a sip of water.

"Yeah, might be. I remember it took Neo a while to get the gist that everything was just a computer simulation. You're catching on quick," Tank said.

"Thanks. I'm not sure if I want to fight Neo in the trainer yet or not. Morpheus always kicks my ass."

"Yeah, well, when you can beat Morpheus, you'll be at the top of your game. The agents, though, you handled them well. There are only a few people who've actually been able to kill an agent, and now, you're one of them. But I wouldn't advise you going up against one again," Tank said.

"I am curious though," Splice said, looking down into his bowl, "just how I'm going to react to stepping back into the Matrix. I definitely look at it a different way, now, but it used to be the real world to me," Splice said just before the door squealed open. Morpheus stuck his head in.

"It is time. I'm going to take Splice to see her."

Splice laid down, and Trinity strapped him into the chair. He looked up to see her tapping commands into his overhead monitor screen.

"Time for the old sticker in the back of the—," he paused as he felt the spike slice into the back on his head, "oh, yep, yep, yep, there it is." He closed his eyes and listened to the world one more time before it changed. He heard Trinity get into her chair just before Tank loaded him into the buffers. He watched his vision go black and then fade to green and into white. He felt himself digitized into a new body and show up in the white construct waiting-room area. He looked to his right and saw Morpheus standing there like he stood when they met. Morpheus stood tall and large. He was very imposing in his long, alligator skin trench coat but still presenting an ora of professionalism with the three piece suit he wore beneath it. The armless round mirrored glasses were very trademark of Morpheus, and they went well.

Splice looked down at himself. He stood as he stood in his room the night he was set free. Well, not exactly, but close. Because it was a digital domain, he could choose exactly what he wanted, not what he could afford at the store—the fake store, that was. He again had his stylized crew cut that faded down his head into a guard one buzz down his hairline. He wore a pair of thin sunglasses that were slightly angled down, giving him a slightly angry look. He wore a highly detailed full length trench coat over a near form fitting long sleeve button-down black down shirt, and a long pair of black cargo pants. He wore a bright, red tie that he modestly tucked into his shirt at the top third button.

"I like the outfit, Splice," Morpheus said. "Good choice."

"Thank you, Morpheus," Splice said as he began walking over toward him. "Should I go armed? Would she be offended if I am carrying?"

Morpheus smiled.

"Take what you think you will need and leave it in the car before we go in."

"What is the risk of an agent showing up?" Splice said. Morpheus smiled.

"She is well protected. You need not worry." As Morpheus finished his sentence, Trinity and Neo materialized. Neo stood in his long coat that was simply a black cloth coat that went from a collared neck down to his feet. His eyes were shielded by a frame less pair of sunglasses whose lenses were angled downward with his eyebrows.

Trinity was far more impressive, though. It looked as if she were shrink wrapped in shinny Patton leather. It hugged and pulled on every corner of her physique. Her hair was stylized back on her head, and she had on a pair of sunglasses exactly the same as Neo enhanced by frames that flared out on the edges.

"Trinity," Splice said, as they all gathered into a group, "stunning as always." Trinity smiled, and Neo punched Splice in the arm pretty hard.

"Hey, she's already taken, stud."

There was a flash in the distance as Tank sent in the armory. Isles of guns streamed in, blasting past them. Splice felt the breeze ruffle his clothing as the weapons were loaded. When they snapped still, Splice saw what was actually available to them.

"Wow." He turned around and looked at the huge diversity of weapons. "It's a _candy_ _store!_" He looked around and wiggled his fingers around. "Anything I want." He first put a drop leg holster on each leg and slid on a chest holster before choosing his weapons. He saw the same Berettas Morpheus used the night they set him free, Desert Eagles of all calibers, a number of Glocks and Gerbers, but then he came across what caught his eye. He picked up the gun and ran his hand over the slide.

"Mark twenty-three forty-five caliber SOCOM. Hail to the king, baby."

"We do not have much time," Morpheus said.

"Right," Splice said as he quit ooo-ing and aww-ing over the guns and began strapping them into his holsters. He ended up with four SOCOMS, two either side of his chest and one on each leg with three extra magazines per gun when Neo came into his field of view.

"Here, Splice," Neo said, holding Splice's katana blade. "You did pretty well with this last time. You may do some good with it again."

"Rock," Splice said as he took it from Neo and slid the whole blade and scabbard up and into his gear. As he slid it up his back, he felt it meld with the current gear he wore, probably thanks to Tank.

"Does everyone have on their party close?" Morpheus asked. Trinity gave a thumbs up, and Splice pulled tight his dexterity gloves.

"Let's kick the tires and light the fires," Splice said.

Morpheus held his phone out and dialed up Tank.

"We're ready."

It was odd, really. There was a room with an old, rotary dial phone sitting on a table and nothing else. The phone rang once, and four people materialized around it. It was the crew of the _Nebecanezzar_. Morpheus stepped over to the phone and picked up the handset.

"We're in."

They all stepped out of the building and walked down a flight of three stairs with Morpheus first.

As soon as Splice stepped out of the door, the breeze hit him. He felt it run through his hair and he felt the sunlight warm his coat. He took a deep breath of what he felt was air. It smelled good. He felt the give of the wood under his boot and was reminded of his previous life. It was all coming back to taunt him. Then he remembered the crops of these people. He remembered why he had entered this fight, and he quickly shed any temptation that crept into his mind. What he remembered as the "real world" would always be there to tempt him to return, but he knew none of it was real.

He felt that ignorance was not bliss. If he could not do something to save himself or those around him, then he was useless, and he was too selfless to do that. The last thing he ever wanted to be was selfish, because then he would be the bottom of the food chain, that junk you scrape off the bottom of the barrel. He was here for the long haul. He was ready to rock the Matrix to its very foundation.

He looked to his right and saw the Cadillac they used to get him out, but this time it looked different. This time it was a four door instead of a two.

"Where do we get all of these cars?" he asked?

"We can get whatever car we want sent here by the construct," Trinity said as she rounded the front and went for the driver's door. Morpheus took shotgun, and looked back to Neo standing at the door of the building.

"We'll be back in an hour," Morpheus said. Neo nodded and stepped back into the building. Splice walked around to the driver's side rear seats. Splice ran his hand over the length of the fin sticking up off the back of the white vehicle as he came around the end of the car to sit behind Trinity. He trailed it all the way to the door handle before he opened the door and slid himself in.

"So, we just order up a car, and it appears here?"

"You got it," Trinity said as she started up the beast of a car. They backed out and took off out of the alley, hanging a right down the street.

Splice looked out the window through his sunglasses as they cruised down the road, seemingly unnoticed. He watched all of the people walk along as they carried out their lives completely oblivious to the truth. Despite the separation from his mother he had undergone as a teenager, he still wondered what happened to her. On second thought, Splice realized that she was not even his mother genetically. Well, genetically or not, she raised him to be the young man he was as he sat. It was too bad that he had to leave her behind, but he understood what had to be done. He was going to leave her behind when he turned seventeen and he joined the Navy, anyway. It was just three years earlier than would have been otherwise, and it was for a much greater cause.

Morpheus lowered his sun visor and watched Splice in his mirror looking out the window. Morpheus was impressed with the kid at this point. He was very willing to do what needed to be done. He had a good work ethic, and while he was very open minded to possibilities, he was not gullible.

Splice was similar but markedly different from the first time Morpheus saw him. Even though a mere two weeks had passed since Splice was freed, he looked a little more hardened than before. The contours of his face were that of a very athletic teenager but a little more cut and determined. His short black hair was gelled up on end and went from a widow's peak back to the edge of his hairline down to a modest pair of sideburns that necked back into a pair of sharp ears. Morpheus watched Splice flex his jaw as he undoubtedly pondered quite a bit about the Matrix. There were always means to monitor what goes on in people's minds. Body language is the only true language, they say.

"Unbelievable," Morpheus said, getting Splice's attention, "isn't it?" Splice raised his eyebrows and looked back outside.

"Yeah—yeah it is." Splice said. As they pulled up to a stop light, a little girl waved to him. He smiled and waved back. Instinctively, Splice made a tactical assessment of the situation. "What sort of things should I keep an eye out for when we're in the Matrix?"

"Anything that makes you uncomfortable," Morpheus said.

"Well, you guys probably realize this, but," he said as he tallied the red flags going up in his mind, "for starters, we're boxed in here. One hand grenade, and we're done for. One agent for that matter, and we're in for a day of bad news. We're driving one of the most recognizable vehicles in human history, and we're surrounded by people who are perfect agent candidates." He looked back out the window. "But I'm sure you guys have taken all of that into account. After all, you're all still kickin'." He paused as the light turned green, and they proceeded. "So, what city is this supposed to be?"

"Detroit," Morpheus said. "This is where we found Neo."

Splice looked to the back of Trinity's head.

"Did you go to the Oracle, Trinity?"

"Yes."

"What did she tell you?" Splice asked.

"She said I would fall in love with the one."

"Aaaww," Splice said as the car came to a stop. "Isn't that fucking sweet?" he said with a smile. Trinity winked at his reflection in the rear view mirror.

"We're here," Morpheus said. He turned around. "Splice, come with me."

Splice pulled the two pistols from his chest holsters and the two from his leg holsters, placing them on the seat next to him. He opened the door and stepped out. The digital nature hit him again, tempting him to return to the world he once lived in. _Not in this lifetime, bitch,_ he thought to himself.

He shut the door and walked around the back of the car as it thundered off. Both Morpheus and Splice stood out like sore thumbs as they crossed the street, but their confidence fended off any would be threats.

The air conditioning hit Splice in the face as they stepped into the rundown building. He immediately noticed a blind man sitting on a bench across from an elevator. When the blind man returned Morpheus's nod, things began falling into place. Splice smiled as Morpheus hit the elevator button, opening the doors.

"Sneaky, sneaky," Splice said. Morpheus smiled, and they stepped in.

"Did you caught that?" The door slid shut, and Morpheus hit the button for the fifteenth floor.

"Is the Oracle going to tell me what to do?" Splice asked.

"In a way," Morpheus said. "She is like a guide. She can help you make the connection between points A and P quicker than you can alone. She will help you find your path."

"What did she tell you?"

"She told me I would find the One."

"Neo," Splice said. Morpheus gave a slight nod in an affirmative. "Never disappoints, huh?" Splice said. Morpheus smiled again.

"Not as of yet."

After a moment of silence, Splice spoke again.

"How long has she been around?"

"Since the beginning of the resistance," Morpheus looked over his shoulder. "She is very old." The elevator chimed, and the doors slid open to reveal a long, concrete lined hallway leading into a vanishing point. They stepped out of the elevator and walked along, Morpheus with his forearms parallel behind his back. Splice took off his gloves and stuck them in his pockets. They came to a graffiti covered door and stopped. Morpheus turned to Splice.

"I told you that I could only show you the door. You must pass through it."

Splice nodded.

"Like the old expression of leading a horse to water, right?" Splice reached for the door knob, and the door opened. A young black woman in her thirties opened the door and greeted them both with a large smile.

"Splice, we've been expecting you. Please come in," she said. With Splice's hand still ready to open the door, he stepped through the door with Morpheus right behind him. "Morpheus, we're glad to see you made it back safe and sound. Please, make yourself at home," she said fluidly. "Come with me, Splice." She led Splice to the apartment's living room. When he entered the room, he noticed he was the only one with a trench coat. "These are the other potentials. You can wait here." She intercepted a Chinese man wearing sunglasses as he approached Splice. "Chateau, this is Splice."

The Chinese man placed his left fist against his right palm in front of him and bowed. This was the Kung-Fu symbol for respect, much like a more intimate form of shaking hands. Splice immediately returned the gesture.

"It is nice to meet you, Splice. You are here to see the Oracle."

"Yes," Splice said as they released hands.

"Then I must apologize."

"Why?'

"I must ask you for your blade."

Splice jetted his eyebrows in surprise. "Oh, shit," he said. He had completely forgotten he had a twenty-three inch katana blade on him. He reached around his back and drew it with his right hand. With the blade back across his forearm, he extended his hand with a slight bow of the head, holding the hilt for the Chinese man to grab. Chateau took the blade and thanked Splice for his cooperation.

Splice looked around and saw all of the children and what they were doing. There were about a dozen children in the area, and they were all doing very interesting things. Six of them were playing chess and moving the pieces without touching them. Another was playing with toys, making them levitate, and some of them were stabbing keys on laptop computers. Then he saw a boy sitting on the floor next to him. The kid was dressed like a monk and sat in front of a number of crushed and bent spoons.

Splice pushed his sunglasses up and onto his forehead and looked at the kid below him. He watched the kid take a new spoon and hold it out. The kid seemed to stare at it, and then something happened Splice did not expect. The spoon bent as if it were silly putty.

"Cool," Splice said. The spoon snapped back to normal as the kid looked up at Splice. "Hi. I'm Splice."

The kid smiled. He extended his arm in Splice's direction.

"I know," the kid said. Splice sat down Indian style and took the spoon from his outstretched hand.

"That was really cool. How did you do that?" he asked.

"With my understanding of the spoon," the kid said. Splice frowned and nodded his head.

"Cool. You did it, because you realize it's not real?"

The kid smiled and nodded his head.

"Yes. Because we know what it is, we can alter this reality" the kid said. "There is no spoon."

Splice looked from the spoon to the little kid. He understood better, now. It made all the sense in the world, too. Anything he wanted to do, he could do, simply because the present reality was a computer program inherently inferior to its creators, the human mind.

Splice smiled and held the spoon out. It was just like jumping from building to building. You know it is possible. He stared at it and willed the spoon over. The spoon shimmered and rippled as it bent over sideways. His concentration was broken when the young black woman showed back up.

"The Oracle will see you now."

Splice put the spoon down in the line of spoons and smiled at the kid.

"Thanks, Spoon," he said. The kid smiled in return. "I'll have to remember that one," he said as he stood up. He was led to the kitchen where an older dark lady sat at a table. She sat with her legs crossed looking at a magazine. The air was filled with the aroma of baking cookies and the soft sounds of old Motown jazz. Her hair strayed out to the sides, and she was reading through a pair of half-lensed glasses when he stepped through the doorway draped with strings of beads. She looked over the tops of her lenses and smiled.

"Splice. Boy, oh, boy, you're the cutest one I've seen in years." She put the magazine down and removed her glasses, looking Splice over from head to toe. "What a stud. I would ask you to sit down, but you're too polite and won't for a buck fifty-three."

Splice smiled and put his hands behind his back. He expected that he would not understand everything she told him. He had run into plenty of smart people who dazzled him with their intelligence. He expected her to be the best of them.

"It's very nice to meet you, ma'am. I have heard a lot about you," Splice said softly. She wove her hand as she looked back at the oven.

"Oh, you don't have to call me ma'am. It makes me feel old." After a second of checking the baked goods, she looked back to Splice. "Almost done." She reached for a pack of cigarettes and pulled one out. "You know why you're here?"

Splice nodded his head.

"Morpheus says that you can help me find my path," he said as he watched her strike a match.

"But you already know what your path is, don'tcha'?"

"Well, I was hoping you would say a certain thing, but you actually know what my path is, so my preference is really beside the point."

She let out a sigh and shook her head.

"No. I can't tell you what to do. I can't even give you advice unless you trust me, and to trust me you must trust yourself," she said as she wove the lit match around. She put the cigarette to her lips and the match to its end. She drew a drag and waved the match out. She leaned back and inhaled the cloud of smoke. "You see, no one can tell you your path, you have to know it through and through. It fills every cell of your body. You feel anxious to go do it. You know it balls to bones." She let the flood of thoughts hang in the air. "So, do you know what you're going to be?"

"A warrior against the Matrix."

"Close, but that would make you no different than Morpheus or Trinity out there. There's something else." She stood from the chair and approached the oven.

"I can see the Matrix," he said. She smiled and checked the window in the oven.

"Keep going."

"I can almost see what's coming. I manipulate it."

"Bingo," she said as she opened the oven door. "You're not the One, kiddo. That slot's already taken, but you've got the gift." She took a deep whiff of the aroma of the cookies. "Smell good don't they?"

"Yes, ma—," he stopped himself, and he immediately understood. "It's a confidence issue." She turned to him with the cookie sheet in her hand.

"Oh," she said making eye contact with him. "Right on. It's a confidence issue." She turned back around to the oven, placing the cookie sheet down on the stove top and grabbed a plastic spatula.

"I like the quote you have over the door."

"Thank you. I'm particularly fond of it. Most people don't notice it. It has to do with what we're talking about."

"Know thyself."

"You're getting them all today. That's a good thing about you, kiddo. You're well on your way to truly knowing yourself." She put the plate of cookies on the table and sat down. "Cookie?" Splice smiled as he looked at her. He maneuvered himself into the chair opposite her at the checkerboard foldout table and looked from the cookies to her. He momentarily froze as realized it. "You figured it out, didn't you, kiddo?" she said.

He had suddenly realized what she had meant earlier. A buck fifty-three. She didn't refer to his weight. She meant that he would not sit for another on- hundred and fifty-three seconds, and he was willing to bet that was exactly how long it was, down to the second, before he sat.

"That's good. Most people don't figure that kind of stuff out for a while."

"But, how?" he asked.

"Well, I wouldn't be much of an oracle if I hadn't known, now would I?" she asked with a twinkle in her eye. "You know what's baking your noddle right now, don't you?" Splice smiled at her.

"Would I have still done it if you hadn't said anything?"

"Right on, kiddo. You're pretty bright. You'll be a good addition to Morpheus's crew some day. You will fight beside him very well." She took another drag from her cigarette. "You're going to make a good leader. People will follow you both in and out of this place. You will be one of the few, and you will be willing to sacrifice yourself to save others. With the likes of you, Neo, and those kids out there in the den, we will be able to really put a dent in things. We will be able to make this a better place. With leaders like Morpheus, and someday you, we will be able to lead enough people to defeat the architect and destroy the Matrix." She tapped the cigarette in the ash tray. "Heck, maybe even reshape it." She looked at him with a long smile before she reached across the table and wiped some dust off his lapel. He smiled and looked back to her with a question loaded. He hesitated as he watched her. She was waiting for him to speak, and he laughed slightly.

"You know what I'm going to say," he said. "There is something else."

"The agents," she said. He nodded slightly. "You feel something with them."

"Yeah, I don't know what it is, but I can feel them. It's like a kinship," he said. She took a drag of her cigarette and narrowed her eyes. No, he knew that wasn't quite right. "It's more like I understand them," he said. She leaned her head back and nodded once.

"You know what they are. You can feel their nature. That's how you can do what you do," she said.

"It's almost like I know their code," he said. She smiled and let the smoke rise out of her nose.

"Now that is interesting." She pulled a large smile and leaned back in the seat with her legs crossed beneath the table. "You're doin' good, kid. Like all of us, you have a ways to a go, but you'll go far." She stood, and Splice stood with her. She grabbed the plate off the table. "Here, have a cookie, Splice. Don't be a stranger. Give Morpheus my best and stop by the next time you're in the neighborhood. I enjoy chatting."

Splice smiled a little more. He felt like he had known her his entire life. He reached out and picked up one of the M&M cookies.

"Thank you."

Splice walked through the living room and waved to the kid with the spoons on his way out. The kid smiled and waved back as Splice retrieved his sunglasses. Chateau appeared directly to his right, knelt on one knee holding Splice's katana hilt out with the blade resting on the palms of his hands.

"Thank you," Splice said as he bowed and carefully took the weapon. "It was nice meeting you, sir."

Chateau stood tall, and Splice rounded the corner to see Morpheus sitting on a bench. Morpheus smiled as Splice slid the katana back into is scabbard. He towered over Splice as he rose to his full height.

"What was said was for you and you alone," Morpheus said as he shifted his gaze between Splice's eyes. He clipped his armless sunglasses back on his nose, and Splice took a small bite of the cookie.

"Mmm! Morpheus, would you like a piece?"

Morpheus smiled and put his arms back behind his back.

"No, that is alright. I will wait until the next time to have some more of the Oracle's good cooking." Morpheus pulled his phone out, slid the key guard down, and dialed Trinity. "We're coming out."

Splice finished chewing as they stepped outside and took a look around. He paused and listened. Something was wrong. He let his senses reach out. The code felt different.

"Morpheus, I think something's wrong."

Morpheus turned around.

"What is it Splice?"

Splice looked down and tried to feel what was going on. He listened to everything as if he were taking point, leading a squad around in the forest. He looked over to his right without thinking to change the angle of his ears.

"I don't know. Something is weird," Splice said as they heard their ride approaching. "You ever get that feeling like you're being watched?" As the Cadillac drove up, they both got in, and it blasted away.

On the roof stood a man dressed in a yellow lined two-piece suit. He looked down, staring at the car through his rimless sunglasses as it disappeared behind a building. He looked and acted like an agent, but he was not. An agent of the system did, however walk up behind him.

"Agent Brown," the man at the edge said. "They are in a white nineteen fifty-nine Cadillac four door." He turned around to face the agent, who had his hand pressed against his earpiece communicating the information to the mainframe and down to other agents. "If you want to get into Zion's mainframe," the man at the edge said, "Morpheus is the key."

"We already tried that, once," Agent Brown said. The man at the edge lifted his eyebrows that canted down into his sunglasses lenses.

"Oh, I do remember."

"Then you know that the anomaly will come to his aid and do to us what he did to you."

The man stepped away from the edge and walked over to the agent with his hands clasped.

"Well, you know," he said in a unique, signature vernacular of the former agent, "misery loves company." As quickly as an agent moves, the man drove his hand deep into the agent's chest and bled black tendrils from the contact area. The black material flowed up over the agent's shoulders and face. Seemingly paralyzed the shape of the agent began to change. He became a little smaller, until the tar pulled away from his face, and the man pulled his hand out of the former agent's chest. The agent had turned into an exact copy of the man, as if they were twins. The original straightened the former agent's tie and smoothed his suit's lapels.

"My, my, my," the original said as the copy smiled, "aren't you a looker."

"Thank you," the other agent said.


	3. Things Can't Just Be Easy

Neo sat in the building, waiting. To pass the time, he watched the streams of code run by. He marveled at its complete complexity. Within every symbol was an entire stream of codes. The hard drive necessities must have just been unbelievable. Then before he could react, he felt a trimmer in the code, something changed instantaneously. The light between the planks of wood making up the walls of the building quickly disappeared as the entire building went dark.

He stood and looked around. They were alert of his presence. He quickly pulled out his phone.

"Tank, what happened?"

"They cut the hard-line and changed the building into a titanium box eight foot thick! I can't get you out.

"Find me an exit. I'll see what I can do." Neo closed the phone and slid it back into his coat pocket.

The Cadillac ran along at thirty miles per hour when Morpheus's phone rang.

"What is it, Tank?"

"They've trapped Neo, and cut the hardline to his position. I see three police units coming to intercept you. The nearest exit is on Harvey Street."

"Things can't just be easy with you people, can they?" Splice asked.

"Harvey Street across town," Morpheus said.

"That's a firm, sir. You're going to have to bust it across town to get to an exit. One of the police units is two streets ahead of you. Turn right!"

"Go right, now!" Morpheus said to Trinity. The five-thousand pound car swung around and blazed down the narrow alleyway.

"There are three ways to get there. Highway Three to Johnson Street, through a residential area and the I-10 freeway."

"What is traffic like this time of day, Tank?"

"I-10 is bad, residential has kids on buses going home from school, and Highway Three is real light."

"I'm coming up to the end of the alley," Trinity announced.

"Go left," Morpheus said. "Go to Highway Three. Splice," he said loudly, "I need you to take point. Watch for anyone coming in. Trinity, turn right here and get onto the feeder."

The Cadillac threw its weight and took the sharp maneuvers well as Trinity got into position. A police car fell in directly behind them.

"Alright, we've got company!" Splice said.

"As fast as the car an offer, please," Morpheus said to Trinity. The vehicle accelerated at an impressive rate as they flew down the feeder road and neared the highway on ramps.

Splice watched the two officers closely as they radioed their position when he saw them both gyrate violently as they were taken over by a pair of agents.

"Alright, the cops behind us are now agents. Got any ideas, Morpheus?"

"Get them off our tail."

"Got it," Splice said. He rolled down the window and grabbed the top of the car and lifted himself out of the window. His right foot was in the seat, and the arch of his left boot dug into the door's window frame. His trench coat flared out of the window and began trailing behind them like a black, leather flag, snapping in the wind. Facing the rear of the car, he held onto the door frame with his left hand and drew the SOCOM from his left chest holder with his righthand and clicked off the safety. He extended his arm across his torso with his arms in an X over his chest and opened fire.

He fired at the police car's windshield. After he punched thirteen holes in the windshield, the slide locked open, and the police car kept coming. Then he saw the driving agent phase back behind the steering wheel, apparently after dodging the bullets.

Splice could handle that. He released the clip from the weapon, and brought the gun around to his chest and shoved the handle over another magazine in his chest holster. When he felt the mag snap into place, he pointed the SOCOM back down range and pushed down on the slide lock, and slammed the slide home. He took aim at the front tires instead. He plugged holes in the wheel well before the front left tire exploded.

The steering wheel ripped away from the agent's grip, and the car whipped over to its left. The car pivoted over its front right fender, digging into the asphalt. The police car flipped over the fender and somersaulted over and over on the highway. As the car wildly crashed over the road, it caused more vehicles to tumble and pile. Two police cars sharply evaded and accelerated toward them, some one-hundred yards back. Splice got back in and quickly rolled the window back up. He released the magazine from his weapon and counted the bullets he had left. He put that one back in his vest and slapped a fresh one in its place.

"Hold on!" Trinity said. They sharply turned onto an off ramp and bounded off the highway as they approached an overpass that they wanted to pass under. She slammed on the breaks and turned the wheel to the left as they approached the intersection, the heavy Cadillac swinging in response. Splice rolled to the right and was plastered against the door as they began their turn. The end of the heavy vehicle swung around leaving a pair of rubber tracks and a cloud of burnt rubber. The whitewall tires broke lose as she floored the accelerator and took back off perpendicular to where they just were. They screamed under the overpass and hung another hard left to get back on the highway, going exactly the opposite direction, around the city to Harvey Street. They again accelerated as they entered the highway. There was another set of police lights behind them and several from the other direction on the other side of a stout concrete divider. Trinity got into the center lane. Splice looked back to see another cop coming up quickly. He also saw an agent riding a Harley Davidson in the HOV lane running parallel to them.

"Here we go again!" Splice said as he again rolled down the window. He perched himself outside in the same fashion as last time and drew his weapon.

"Groovy," Splice said to himself. The police car angled itself directly behind Splice, denying him a clear shot at their tires. He fired at the driver's center of mass once, punching a hole in the glass with no positive effect on the agent. He fired down into the dashboard to see if he could damage the steering wheel enough but to no avail. The rounds either did not penetrate, or he just missed.

The agent on the Harley approached quickly and drew his Desert Eagle fifty caliber hand gun and brought it level with Splice. Splice fired in an effort to cause the agent to lose his balance and fall from the bike but instead hit his gun, blasting it from his grip. The agent gritted his teeth and pressed against his ear piece. Splice felt a displacement in the Matrix. He looked over his shoulder just quick enough to see a police car come off the median and ram the side of their Cadillac.

The impact was too great for Splice to take and fell onto the police car's hood. He released his pistol to grab onto the hood between the windshield hood and held with all his strength. He gritted his teeth to see a pair of agents inside the cop car looking right back at him. Before they could draw their pistols, Splice pulled his off his right leg, crammed it into the glass, and pulled the trigger. He sent a round right into the agent. Splice was too close for the agent to be able to dodge and instead took it in the chest, but did Splice stop? No. He peppered the corpse and the agent next to him until they were arching green lightning. He stuck the gun back in his drop leg holster and clipped it secure as he rode the driverless police car. Splice looked over his shoulder and saw the car was headed over the feeder road and for a telephone pole at over ninety miles per hour. This was not the best place to be.

Splice quickly got to his feet and took a long, powerful step onto the top of the roof and bounded up and over the car. He somersaulted over the roof light bar and passed the trunk as he felt the car pass beneath him. He slammed into the feeder pavement and rolled as the police car impacted the telephone pole in a fiery explosion. He rolled within his trench coat without injury and got back up. He pulled his telephone from his pocket and clicked the key guard away with his finger. He quickly dialed his operator.

"Tank, what can you tell me?" He watched the motorcycle break away from the Cadillac as it neared the bridge on ramp. The rear tire lit up in smoke as the agent brought the bike down the embankment and onto the feeder road.

"You okay kid? That was one hell of a move! Agent dead ahead, Splice. Get— " he began to say as Splice interrupted him.

"Hey, Tank, I'll call you back." Splice slid the key guard back over the keypad and put the phone back in his inner pocket. The motorcycle roared toward him closing the distance quickly. Splice took a defensive posture against the course of the bike, his left side facing the bike. The agent had lined his course to directly run over Splice. Splice put his right hand inside his coat and grabbed the hilt of his wakizashi. As the bike neared, he flipped off the restraining clip and counted the feet until the agent arrived.

Neo walked over to the wall and ripped the wood away to see a bluish metal. He put his hand on the cold metal and briefly studied it. He stepped away, toward the middle of the room and stood up straight. He placed one hand behind his back and the other out in front of him and utilized his power.

A deep base filled the room, and everything began to vibrate. The wall he faced began to oscillate and ripple away from his hand. Neo exerted a little more effort and made the entire building shake violently. He clenched his teeth and sent a pulse toward the wall.

The massive titanium wall sheered away from its other three sides and fell free. The wall crashed into the ground had enough to set off car alarms for blocks. He looked out to see what must have been twenty police cars and a hundred police officers. Neo looked into the code and saw five agents present in the crowd.

Someone yelled _open fire_, and the air was filled with the cracking of gunshots and shotgun blasts. Neo simply held his hand up. Bullets of all calibers and all colors slowed and stopped suspended feet from him. Clumps of shotgun shot stopped mid-air with the rest of the bullets, forming a massive cloud of lead and steel. By the time the officers realized their bullets were suspended in air, the gunfire trickled off, and awe set it. The policemen could not believe what they were seeing. Neo looked from the diverse wall of bullets to the police officers and snapped his fingers. All seventeen hundred bullets fell from the air to the ground. Neo smiled and winked at the officers before he crouched down. A single ripple in the floor expanded away from him as he blasted into the air and became airborne.

The motorcycle closed thundering down on Splice at an alarming speed. It was beginning to become obvious that the agent was going to try to simply ram Splice, run him over. Splice drew his katana with is right hand and held it the length of his leg. With his left side facing the agent, he drew a pistol from his right chest holster and leveled it with the agent.

"Come get some," Splice said. He ripped crevices in the air as the fired mercilessly at the agent's center of mass atop the motorcycle. He fired at the agent's shimmering body as a distraction from the blade he concealed from view. He fired his last round, and the slide locked open as the agent shimmered back into one piece. Splice saw the mix of anger and satisfaction on the agent's face.

As the agent got within twenty feet of him, Splice dropped his pistol and pivoted to his left, gaining distance between himself and the motorcycle. With his coat fully flared by the wind, he swung the wakizashi blade right into where the agent sat, and the agent drove himself right through the blade. The motorcycle wobbled and fell over as the two pieces of the agent separated in a green flare. The bike skidded to a stop some fifty feet away from Splice.

He silently thanked God everything worked like he planned as the ran to the motorcycle. Splice grabbed the motorcycle's heavy frame and pulled with all his strength. He strained with the strength he had as a human as the strength he had by manipulating the Matrix. With all his might, he was able to lift the motorcycle upright. Once it was up, it stood nearly balanced. He inspected the scuff on the fuel tank and saw that the damage did not extend through the container's wall. He smiled and mounted the bike, his coat parting over the back of it. He started the bike back up and felt it rumble between his legs.

"Hail to the king, baby." Splice rotated back on the throttle and held down on the front brake. The rear tire spun free and rotated around to face the opposite direction, leaving a black half moon mark on the ground. He looked around and saw no one coming. He pulled his phone out and dialed his operator.

"Tank, I need an exit."

"Splice, there's an old exit in down town if you want to take it. It's a strip bar on the corner of Burleson and Fifth."

"Cool. How do I get there?" Splice asked as the motorcycle thundered beneath his legs.

"Go on the feeder and get onto first. . ." Tank finished the directions, and Splice put the phone back in his pocket. Splice let off the brake and lit up the back tire.

"Tank, is Splice okay?" Morpheus asked.

"Yeah, chock up one more agent's ass. Now he's going to an old exit in down town."

"The strip club?" Morpheus asked.

"Yeah, it's empty this time to the day."

"Where is Neo?"

"He's airborne right now. He's going to meet you at Harvey Street."

"Alright, Tank, we're staying in until Splice gets out. Neo may have to get him."

Splice thundered into the city without notice or incident, which worried him a little. He followed the directions Tank gave him, and he found the place. It looked like a titty bar from the outside. Being this deep in the super dense megacity, it was almost dark enough to be mistaken for night. He pulled up in a handicap parking place, knocked down the kick stand, and shut off the bike. He dismounted the bike, his coat trailing him. He climbed the stairs and came to the landing in front of the door. On either side was a pair of very big, very thick bouncers. He tried to walk past them as if they were not there, but one stuck his hand in Splice's chest.

"Where do you think you're going, runt?"

Splice stopped and looked down at the man's hand putting a crease in his tie. He pushed the man's hand to the side with the back of his left hand and rearranged the red tie.

"Look, guys, it's been a rough day. I just need to use the bathroom," he said as he looked back up to them.

"You twenty-one? You look more like fourteen," the other one said as he planted his hand on Splice's shoulder. Splice grabbed the guy's hand and twisted it two-hundred and seventy degrees over and threw a side kick right into the other man's chin, knocking him over the guard rail and down onto the hard concrete below. Splice took the bouncer he held in an arm lock and kneed him right in the face. The man fell over in a wet clump, and Splice whipped his coat around as he walked inside. He threw open the second set of double doors to see that the strip club was not a strip club this afternoon. It was a rave absolutely packed with people.

"For the love of God," he said as he rolled his eyes. Things just kept getting worse. He recognized the music and looked up on the stage to see that it was a German band by the name of Rammstein, a band he had been particularly fond of. He walked down into the crowd and pushed his way through the people bathed in flashing lights and ear pounding music. He plowed through the head banging crowd as he navigated to the far left wall, to the bathrooms where a telephone stood attached to the wall. He pushed through the mass of people. He saw the neon sign from where he was and continued on through. The last thing he needed was an agent to pop in.

As he neared the short corridor leading to the bathrooms, a big stocky guy stepped in and blocked the way.

"Hey, kid," he said, "what the hell are you doing here?!" he said over the music. Splice looked at the man through is sunglasses and tried to think of something to say. It came to him when the song ended, and the crowd's cheer faded.

"I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum." Just as he finished, Splice realized his was the only noise in the entire building, and everyone looked over at him. He cursed himself and shoved the man out of his way. He walked down to the end of the corridor and saw someone was already on the phone. "Excuse me, sir," he said, "I am waiting for a very important call."

"Tank," Morpheus said into his phone, "is Splice alright?"

"Yeah, he's at the club down town. There are a hell of a lot more people that I expected. It looks like a rave,' Tank said. He was about to hang up with Morpheus when he saw a flash on his screen. His eyes widened as he saw what was happening and cursed into the open line with Morpheus.

Splice stepped back and grabbed the hilt of his wakizashi as he saw the fat man on the phone stretch and bend into an agent. The agent let the phone go and dangle and turned around to face Splice.

"Mr. Taylor," he said as he approached a retreating Splice, "your time is up." Splice drew his blade and took a slash at the agent but missed as he ducked. Before Splice could complete his turn, the agent punched Splice with extreme force in the ribcage. Splice absorbed a lot of the hit with his flexed lat and oblique muscle, but it still hurt like hell. Just as quickly as the agent delivered the first blow, he threw an uppercut into Splice's chin. The young man was lifted into the air, and the blow caused him to lose grip of his blade. The agent began throwing punches left and right into Splices torso at the speed of dodged bullets.

Splice gritted his teeth as he flexed every muscle in his body in an effort to cushion as much of the barrage as possible and spat blood. The barrage stopped, and Splice fell to his knees with blood streaming down his chin. His vision shimmered back just in time to see the agent draw his sidearm. Splice hit the weapon away with his left hand and racked his opponent right in the crotch, but to little avail. Splice pivoted himself off the ground with his left hand and smashed the agent with the soles of both feet. He threw the agent into the opposing wall hard enough to make it pause. Splice quickly rose to his feet and gained a defensive posture as the agent stood up off the wall.

Splice threw three punches from right to left, all blocked by the agent, and spun around to deliver a turning back kick right to the agent's abdomen. The agent gritted his teeth as he absorbed the blow. The agent grabbed Splice by the throat and lifted him off the ground, slamming him to the wall. The agent squeezed Splice's neck hard enough to shove his adams apple deep into his throat triggering a hard gag. Splice grabbed the agent's arm and crushed every pressure point in it, but of course it did not work.

Instead, Splice used his grip on the agent's arm to steady himself as he brought a side kick up against the agent's rage ridden face. The agent lost control as Splice continued to plant his jungle boot into the agent's face. Splice began to feel himself get light headed. He reared both legs back and threw his boot heels into the agent's face. Splice fell free to the ground and gritted his teeth as he delivered a two fisted punch to the agent's chest, knocking him back against the narrow hallway's opposite wall. Faster than Splice could tell, the agent delivered a round house kick to his face and cracked him into the opposing wall. This close quarters fighting was a lot harder than it looked! Before Splice could regain his focus, the agent grabbed his tie and wrapped it around his fist, crushing Splice's throat against his clenched fist. The agent smashed him in the face five times, and leveled a gut punch deep into his abs.

Tank watched the kid thrash in the chair from over his shoulder as the agent battered him ruthlessly. A burst of blood spat out of his mouth as he coughed hard.

"Morpheous!" Tank said. "Splice needs help!"

Blood was smeared from his nose, and he spat blood again. He bared his teeth as it dripped off his chin.

He felt the agent let go of his tie. Splice struggled to but got his eyes open to see the agent with his wakizashi on a thrust directly into his chest. The world slowed, and he could see the agent moving far more slowly, but still too fast to do much about. All Splice could do was move to the side and hope he was not run through. He rapidly shimmered to his right in a move like that of an agent as the blade was thrust into the wall, but he did not go far enough.

"Oh, shit!" Tank yelled, "the agent just ran Splice through!"

"Call him, Tank!" Morpheus was heard saying over the line.

"I can't! The phone's still off the hook. I can't call until it's hung up!"

Splice screamed at the top of his lungs as he felt the blade pierce his left lat, a muscle that spanned from Splice's back to his left arm like a wing.

The agent stepped back and smiled. Splice barred his blood smeared teeth as more dripped from his mouth onto his black shirt. He grabbed the hilt and pulled with all his might, but the blade was firmly caught in the cinder block wall. The agent drew his Desert Eagle. Despite the unimaginable pain, Splice kicked the agent's arm just enough to throw off his aim. The heavy hand gun discharged blasting concrete directly next to his head. It was, however just enough time to draw his own weapon. He drew and fired two rounds in the direction of the agent, sending him into a shimmering haze. As the agent dodged the bullets, Splice put the muzzle of the SOCOM to the blade. He pulled the trigger, blasting the hilt off the blade. He screamed as the vibration rattled the blade inside him. Splice turned the weapon back on the agent as he came back into view and fired another two rounds, giving him a few more seconds as the agent shimmered away again. Splice stood forward off the wall, sliding himself off the blade with a yell. He stumbled but fired two more rounds toward the agent. As the agent shimmered out of view, he stumbled to the phone and fired two more rounds. The slide locked to the rear. He hung it up and drew both weapons from his two drop leg holsters as he turned to confront the agent.

"You want some?!" he shouted through his bloodied face. You want to have a little?!" Splice opened fired with both pistols from left to right. He filled the air with hot lead cutting columns of shattered air in their wakes. As the agent phased in and out, Splice adjusted his aim all over in the hope of hitting something. He watched the angry face of the agent shift around, never losing lock with Splice's eyes. The pistol in his right hand went dry first, and he kept firing his left. He slammed it against his chest, thrusting another clip into it when a thought ran across his mind.

With all of this weapons fire in such a small area, he had probably gone pretty deaf. He did not have time to try do discern what he was hearing. For all he knew, the phone had been ringing for the last five seconds. He fired the last four rounds from his left gun and dropped it, letting loose with his right. He grabbed the receiver with his left hand and shoved it onto his ear.

He felt the world crackle and fizzle as he fired to save his life.

As the world went black and the terrible pain of muscle fatigue enveloped his chest and left side, he heard Tank talking. He took a sudden and pained breath as he opened his eyes and tried to stand. He felt the interface spike was still jammed in the back of his head. He looked around and realized he was on the _Nebacanezzar_.

"Oh, fuck," he said. "Oh, God."

"You hold tight, Splice!" Tank said.

"Not a problem, stud," Splice said as he coughed liquid. He tasted the stark metallic taste of blood and felt it running down his chin. Splice tried to reach around the back of the chair to grab the needle interface. He heard Tank tell Morpheus that he was calling them. Tank hopped out of his chain and down into the chair pit

"Whoa, calm down boss man," Tank said as Splice felt around the back of his head. He slapped Splice's hands away and withdrew the interface from the back of Splice's head. Splice felt the needle pull out of his head and he tried to lean forward, but he fell out of the chair instead. Tank hooked the needle onto the back of the chair and knelt down to Splice.

"You okay, Splice?"

Splice wove him away and dry heaved on the metal grate floor.

"Yeah, man, I'm cool," he said as bloody saliva drooled out of his mouth. "I'm cool." He burped loudly as he expelled the air he had swallowed during all that. "Just get them out, and you can patch me up later."

Tank smiled and tapped a few commands into the operations board, sending another call. Splice got to his knees and bent over, gripping is left side.

"Splice," Splice heard Morpheus say from the seat. Splice got to his feet and saw Morpheous looking at him through the corner of his eye as he lay in the seat. He staggered over to Morpheus's chair. Splice stabbed the touch screen and looked Morpheus in the eye before pulling out his needle. Morpheus smiled at Splice like a mentor smiles at a protégé who had accomplished a great feat.

"God, I'm gunna be soar for days," Splice said as he stepped aside so Morpheus could stand. "Feels like I PTed my ass off."

"Well," Morpheus said as he brought Trinity back, "I must say, Splice, you continue to amaze me."

Splice wiped the blood from his chin as he stood hunched, gripping his left lat.

"Is every trip to the Oracle like that, or was that just special for me?" He staggered a little more as he tried to walk off the pain. "By the way, the Oracle said to come back anytime," he said in a stressed tone. "She likes to chat," he finished in a cough.

Morpheus unplugged and helped Neo out of the chair as Splice leaned on one of the chairs.

"You okay, kid?" Neo asked. "You don't look so hot." Splice waved him off and furrowed his brows.

"Yeah, I'm cool. Nothing wrong over here—nope!"

"Yeah," Tank said, "that agent licked on you pretty bad."

"_No, no, no,_ you guys have it all wrong," he said with bloody teeth, "you see, I hit him over here and shot him over there," Splice said with a wince, "I swung my sword and," he coughed, "you know. Stuff and things."

"He didn't score a single hit on you, did he," Trinity said.

"_Psshhh_! You kiddin?!" Splice said as he almost fell over, "Naawww, he had nothin'!" He looked at the crew staring back at him with smiles ears to ears. "Fire, explosions, guns, kick ass martial arts," he said as he forcefully sat down on the metal grate.

"We're the saviors of the Matrix, huh?" He swallowed and looked back up at the crew and gave them a thumbs up. "Anytime you want to go back, just tell me."


End file.
